I am a true southern girl who grew up in Tennessee but now live in Ohio. I am married to my best friend Matt. I am a mom to two beautiful and sweet boys, Ryan (born June 2009) and Colton (born June 2011). We have two adorable doxies named Annabelle and Gracie. I enjoy baking and decorating cookies and cakes. I love Jesus, sweet tea, Tennessee Football, SEC football, date nights, working out, my amazing church and spending time with my family.

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Monday, October 21, 2013

For the last four days I have been with sisters in Christ in Kansas City, MO at MOPS convention. To say it was an amazing experience is an understatement.

One of our former MOPS mentor Jayne helped take care of the boys on Thursday and my neighbor Melanie watched Colton Friday so Matt could take Ryan to his first field trip to the pumpkin patch. SO thankful for such sweet women who made it possible for me to go on this amazing trip.

The convention consists of phenomenal general session speakers including Beth Moore, Jen Hatmaker, Lysa Turkurst and more. In between general session there are breakouts and workshops.

My friend Emily and I flew to Kansas City where we met up with my best friend Rachel who came in from Connecticut.

We stayed at the Marriott downtown across from the convention center where the conference was held.

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel our next mission was to find something to eat. We found this amazing hamburger joint that was fun and really yummy!

It was great start to out trip and so nice to sit and enjoy talking with each other without kiddos around.

My friend Emily from my MOPS group.

Thursday started off with a bang. After lunch we headed to the convention center for two workshops. They were both great and exactly what I needed to hear.

Our theme this year is A Beautiful Mess - Embracing Your Story. All the sessions and workshops centered around this theme. All about how we learn from our mess and share our story with others.

Rachel and I before one of the general sessions.

We got Friday morning started with Beth Moore. Oh my word, LOVE HER!!! She always has so much wisdom and knowledge it's just so good. Plus she has so much energy you just feed off of it. We learned so much the whole weekend! It's like trying to get a drink of water from a water hose. It's such amazing stuff but it's SO much to take in.

Raych, Emily and I before general session Friday.

We were so thankful this year that we got two nights where we had free time and dinner on our own. It gave us a great time to catch up and talk about the breakouts we did during the day.

Kansas City is known for their BBQ so naturally Rachel and I had to weigh in since we are BBQ experts from Memphis! We had been told numerous times about this restaurant called Jack Stacks and their amazing BBQ so we headed there Saturday night.

Here was our dinner, plus the pulled pork sandwich and fries! We split this three ways just so you know! I've never seen ribs so big in all my life. They were crown prime ribs and they were DELICIOUS!!!! So tender and juicy!

Memphis BBQ has a real hickory taste and these were more of a sweet and tangy but they were really, really good. I would say Kansas City BBQ is a close second to Memphis BBQ. (Of course I'm going to say Memphis BBQ is better since it's my hometown, ha!)

It was the BEST trip and so memorable. Can't wait for next year in Louisville! Woot, woot! I learned so much and I can't wait to bring back everything I learned to my MOPS group!